Wednesday 20 January 2010

Directors and Dramas

Dinny Hall and girls in Vogue 1997
Ali (top right), Paola in-house photographer (bottom right) and me (gold jacket in the middle)

The extraordinary has at last happened: finally, after all these years, I, at long last, have moved out of the mezzanine level of my Notting Hill flagship which acts as bridge between shop and workshop, into my own little sanctuary of an office.

As you can imagine, packing up one's desk after years and years of long days spent labouring over designs or overseeing production or nosing into the affairs fo the shop, is something of a messy affair. Yet in the reshuffling of papers etc, I stumbled across some photographs of the Dinny Hall team in days gone by. Everyone looking so young and fresh, my son as a small child laughing and making jewellery at the work bench, a glimpse of a once favorite gold top now long lost--and it got me thinking nostalgically.


My son Lorcan aged 2 learning how to make jewellery

So I thought today I would begin introducing you to some of our wonderful team here at Dinny Hall. While you'll eventually meet them all over time, for now I'd like to focus on two specific individuals who are really at the core of the company, our two directors Ali and Teresa, without whose magic business touch, I would never have had the time to start this blog.

Let's start with Ali, because she has been with me since 1988. She came to me by way of master milliner Stephen Jones (OBE), where she was on work experience straight from college. And she has been with Dinny Hall Ltd ever since. Now a director, she is the cog of the clock that keeps our company ticking, never misses a thing. Her focus is a great antidote to my creative soul...which can sometimes lead to drama and distraction. She is also the proud owner of Sena, the fiesty daschund modelling alongside the beautiful Bo in our Christmas campaign.

Teresa joined the company at a crucial time just before the whole world seemed to tumble into financial chaos. A former investment banker with a real corporate background, Teresa seemed to be exactly what we needed to tidy up the rather lax way in which we normally looked after our financial a ffairs. A string of accountants and financial advisors who made little difference to my maverick ways--i.e. my attempts to micro-manage on my own all aspects of the company, from the business to the creative side. Let's just say, when Lehman's when down, we were so fortuitous to have a business mind as keen as Teresa's to guide us through.
So as I find my company on the eve of a milestone anniversary, I also find it, at long last, in a pair of two very different yet equally capable hands. This means, that the control-freak in me has finally been able to calm down a bit, let others shoulder some of the responsibility and refocus my own attentions on creativity.

Let the fun begin (again)!


Dinny Hall annual dinner some years ago! All pictured still part of the family
(left to right) Rachel (creative production), Paola (in house photographer), a glimpse of my teeth in long lost gold top, and my finger pointing at Ali's cleavage where something is lodged

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